Heat up a cold winter’s evening with a few hours of Cajun food, music, and dancing! Dinner will be at 6pm, with music and dancing from 7:30-10pm. At 7:30pm there will be brief instruction on how to dance the two-step for those who are interested in learning. Live music will be provided by Yankee Chank, with cash bar by Valley Bowl. Bill Koucky, Gifford’s new chef, will be catering the meal.

Yankee Chank, a group of musicians from throughout Vermont and New England, has been entertaining audiences and dancers for 20 years, providing the energy, swing, and toe-tapping rhythms of the traditional Cajun and Zydeco of Southwest Louisiana. The band includes well-known members of the VT contra and traditional music scene: Bob Naess on fiddle, Cannon Labrie on accordion, Jim Burns on guitar, Mark Sustic on bass, and June Drucker on drums. Drawn together by a passion for traditional Cajun and Zydeco music, Yankee Chank has been livening weddings, festivals, nightclubs, community gatherings, parties, and other events throughout New England since their debut at First Night! Burlington in 1996.

Individually and as a group, the band has learned from and performed with many of the most influential Cajun musicians in Louisiana, including Dewey Balfa, Conray Fontenot, Marc and Ann Savoy, Michael Doucet and BeauSoleil, Geno Delafose, and others. The group offers an immersion into Cajun music, specializing in traditional Cajun French two-steps and waltzes as they continue to be played in the rural dance halls and honky-tonks of the South, with some Zydeco thrown in for extra spice.

Chef Bill Koucky recently took a position at Gifford Medical Center, but has taught at the New England Culinary Institute and catered the Spice on Snow Winter Music Festival, featuring Cajun food and music, for the past three years.

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